Afterglow of an Angel Chapter 3
by niki1988
Summary: When the A.I. team are in need of help, an old friend from Sunnydale comes to the rescue, with secrets that she can't hide forever and a certain vampire with a soul who has a secret of his own will find out with his friends and things will be different.


Chapter Three

That Morning…

Willow woke up refreshed and well rested when she lifted herself up from her comfy bed. It was nothing like the one she'd slept on while living in Washington and she didn't really remember how it felt sleeping on it. She got up from her bed before grabbing her robe as she walked into the bathroom and picked up the case with her medicine inside. She picked up the first one as soon as it was ready to go into her thigh as she brought it down there and winced a little when she had to push the needle through and injected the medicine.

The first few times, she felt like she was a little girl in a Doctor's office, afraid of a big needle. Nowadays, it pinched at first, but she was used to it now, especially with the 'miracle' that happened to her before she came to L.A., or was it something other than a miracle?

Before she could move to another, there was a loud knock on her door that made her look up and she decided one was enough before throwing the empty syringe in the garbage and closed up her robe as she headed to the door, the knocking continuing.

"Just a sec." She said, unlocking the door before grabbing the doorknob and pulled it open before folding her arms over her chest.

"Mornin' Red." Spike greeted.

"Spike." Willow greeted back.

"Heard your little tiff with Peaches. What's the matter, Buffy still have you as her lap dog?" Spike asked.

"Ease dropping on him, or me? Even if she was, why do you care?" " Willow asked.

"Andrew said that you and the potential were living in South America. What happened, she wanted to elope and you didn't? And I thought things with you two were going so well." Spike asked.

Willow wasn't in the mood for this yet, it was still too early for Spike to be a pain in her side and wanted this conversation to be over before it went any further or if Angel was coming around to see her again.

"You know, Spike, maybe you can get on my case later, when the mornings over, now's not a good time." Willow stated as she went to close the door, but he stopped her.

"Listen, Red, I know there's something botherin' you, something bigger than me." Spike replied.

She didn't want to do this. Not now. "Here's what you can do for me right now, Spike; do what you do best with me like you did before and leave me alone." With that said coldly, Willow stepped back into her room before slamming it shut and relocking it before she walked back to the bathroom.

Spike stood there for a moment, something that caught his attention, a scent he never really smelled before, not even when his Mother had been ill. He wondered if Angel caught that scent, but then if he did, then he probably would've said something. Something was going on there.

Willow turned the knob of the shower and her eyes closed as she felt the hot water poured down her face from the nozzel and ran her fingers through her hair before grabbing her strawberry vanilla body wash and moved to her shampoo.

Willow sighed. She didn't know why she was still here. She had it planned and told herself the plan; Come to L.A., sneak into Wolfram & Hart, save Fred from turning into the monster that would've killed her, and leave before anyone could catch up to her. That was the plan, to do that and go back to Washington. But then seeing Angel and the others giving her that warm welcome and him obviously not wanting her to leave so soon…it felt like something she hadn't felt in a long time.

She did what she was supposed to do. Now what was she supposed to do?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Later That Day…

Willow decided that until she could figure out what her plan was, she could try to get some fresh air and actually get to see the city of Los Angeles after seeing how Wolfram & Hart was being run, not getting to the last few times she'd been here when she came to tell Angel that Buffy had died saving the world and then to restore his soul again while they were dealing with the Beast before she and Faith came back to Sunnydale.

After her shower was over, she pulled out a pair of comfy jeans and a grey turtleneck before she waved a hand over her hair and it was done. Hair dryers were overrated to her.

Once she ready and out of her room, she locked it before taking the elevator at the end of the hall and stepped in before pressing the button to the lobby. Maybe she could pop in and see Angel for a little bit, unless he was busy and she would see how everyone else is doing.

But as soon as the elevator doors opened and she stepped out, she had gone from feeling good to then feeling not so good where she felt something evil flow through her, such evil that was worse than when she had turned bad when Warren killed Tara and she went on a Rampage to kill him and his friends while turning against her then friends who were trying to stop her.  
She couldn't go back to that, she wouldn't. She worked too hard to stay good and pure after everything that had happened with dark magics involved. She lost so much from that more than once and the Coven in England was there to help her to fight the dark magics that she once craved.

The room was spinning, her head ached, the people that were passing her seemed to be turning into blurs and she felt herself fading and ready to hit the floor as everything was going black. Fortunately, before she could fall, Angel was not far behind her.

"Is she okay?" Gunn asked.

"I'm sure she will be." Angel answered, lifting the unconscious witch in his arms before carrying her away from the scene and heading to his room where she could rest.

Gunn watched Angel carry an unconscious woman in his arms until he walked into his office and closed the door behind him. He and Angel had been trying to find out who it was that was responsible for trying to kill Fred when Angel told him that she was coming and that he'd caught the scent of her. The moment she was ready to pass out, Angel was right there to catch her.

Gunn was pulled out of his train of thought when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder and turned around to see someone he hadn't seen in quite a long time, or long enough anyway.

"Anne? Is that you?" He asked.

"Gunn! I feel like it's been a million years since I've seen you. How are you?" Anne asked as they embraced each other in a friendly hug.

"I'm good. No, better than good. I'm great! And you?" He asked.

"I've had better days." She answered.

"Everything okay?" He asked.

"Not really. We were supposed to have a shipment of supplies for the kids brought to the house and the delivery guy didn't show up. I thought about going to the police, but…" She started.

"But you figured it was more in the Demon area and came here to ask us for help." He finished.

"Yes, but only if it's not too much trouble." Anne stated.

"It's not. Don't worry about it. I personally hope it's a vamp. It's been awhile since we've patrolled the streets lookin' for vamps. We've been here." Gunn replied.

They smiled at each other before he led her to where his office was while they were catching up to old times before they were even offered Wolfram & Hart to own.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*  
Angel slid through the doors once they were fully open with a still unconscious Willow in his arms as he carried her to his bed and gently laid her down, not even worrying about pulling over the covers. He placed a glass of water with two Tylenol on the nightstand if she needed it and he was just about to leave until he got one more glimpse at her and smiled.

He couldn't believe how beautiful she was, her fair skin like porcelain, her emerald green eyes still as lovely as they were when they first met, every detail of her, so lovely of a woman she'd grown up to be.

He leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, still getting a whiff of her strawberry vanilla shampoo, even though she reminded him of strawberries before then and smiled down at her, just looking at her for a little longer until the sound of his pager made him jump and he went into the other room so that Willow could rest quietly.

He didn't want to leave yet, but he knew she wouldn't want him worry with her while he was needed somewhere else and slipped out through the way he came in and headed down back to the Lobby to see the others in the spot where Willow fainted.

"Find anything?" Angel asked as he approached the A.I. team.

"Sure did. Good news, we were right to be suspicious about Knox. He's not who we thought he was. We went through his computer and found some very interesting files on it. Bad news; he's gone. But we're looking for him." Gunn answered.

"Anything else?" Angel asked.

"Someone was trying to frame it on Gunn. They did something to him in the upgrade, something they wanted to go wrong and he wouldn't realize it until it was too late to reverse what he did before the upgrade he was given was fixed. The Doctor who gave it to him is in questioning right now." Fred answered.

Angel wanted to find the people responsible for trying to do this and do worse to them than what Angelus did to his victims and Knox was on the list, as soon as they could find him and those weren't the only things that they needed to do. They needed to hear Fred's side of the story and find out from Willow what she did exactly to stop the Illyria virus from spreading. They would find out.

"This stays between us. No one else knows about it." Angel stated. They all nodded in agreement.

That Night…

Willow was starting to feel better as she was opening her eyes when she realized that it was dark out, her head not feeling like the darkness had taken over and she looked at the surroundings around her. This wasn't her guest room and she noticed the Tylenol on the nightstand, ignoring that since she didn't need to as she drank the glass of water instead.

She got up from the comfortable bed to look in the mirror to see that she looked the way she had looked before and a sigh of relief came out of her. She was still good. The darkness did not convert her to her dark side, either it being her strong will or the new miracle she'd been given. She walked up to the window and looked out at the city of Los Angeles, the lights making her smile. When things started going bad before Sunnydale was gone, some places didn't even bother with lights anymore.

Willow was so lost in her thoughts, she didn't hear who it was that came in as her eyes remained watching the city.

"You know, pictures last longer than starring out a window. That way you can stare at that." The Bleach blonde vampire insisted.

Willow's smile went away when she heard Spike behind her and yet, she still wasn't in the mood for him to annoy her or ask any questions about the blonde slayer.

"You gave Peaches a pretty big scare today. Thought you were dead there when you were in Angel's room the whole day." Spike stated.

"Nope, I'm here. Alive, thankfully." Willow replied.

"As I can see." He glanced at Angel's bed before looking back at the redheaded witch.

"Guess it didn't take long for him to get you into bed, luv." Spike smirked.

"Still a pig I see. Guess some things never really change…and I'll assume your still hung up over Buffy." Willow said in a cold voice.

"Easy, luv. Only joking." Spike said, backing off a little.

"Yeah, it's just a big joke to you, isn't it? You know what I think is a joke? You thinking she could ever love you and you going to Africa to have a soul to prove you love her. Guess you died more than once and came back for nothing" Willow said snidely.

The smug look on Spike's face went away and he in a heart beat, full game face on and he saw the redheaded witch didn't even flinch when he had her trapped.

"You best be careful, Witch. I may have a soul, but that doesn't that I'm like Peaches. I'm still Spike. You do good to not forget that." Spike threatened.

"And don't you forget, I'm the wrong Witch to threaten. Bad things could happen Spike. Don't think you want that to happen." Willow threatened back.

Spike looked into the Witches' face and he knew that she was right. She had completely changed over the years and she was no longer meek or afraid. He unvamped his face before backing away from her and left the room before anything else could be said.

Once Willow heard the door close and knew that he was gone and ran her fingers through her hair as she took a deep breathe. She wasn't expecting him to do that, but no part of her was afraid when he did looked and sounded like the old Spike that she knew from Sunnydale when she and the gang were still in high school. She shrugged it off and went for the glass to get more water to stay hydrated.

Spike, on the other hand, while he was roaming down the hall, knew that there was something very off with the Redheaded Witch. Then, when she was with the other witch, she had been nice to him while he acted like an ass. Now it seemed to be the other way around, but from what had happened with the short time she was there, it didn't feel like she was intentionally trying to hurt him.

He wouldn't be able to work this alone. He needed help and he wasn't going to Angel just yet.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Later That Night…

Angel was in his office, trying to stay focused with the paper work that was in front of him, but he was thinking about something other than that; Willow. When it was dark out, he thought about going to her room to check on her, but he froze and decided to try and keep himself busy until he was ready to see her. But that obviously wasn't working. He couldn't stop thinking of what happened when she fell.

Before he walked into the lobby and ran into Gunn before she was coming, he was pacing back and forth in his office, trying to figure out what to say to her when he saw her and line after line, he tried to go and just see her when Gunn told him some good and bad information about who tried to kill Fred and set Gunn for him to take the fall. When he caught the scent of her shampoo, his face lit up like a Christmas tree and the moment he saw that something was wrong, he fortunately got to her first before she hit the floor and took her to the one place where he knew she would be safe.

Angel shook himself out of his thoughts in effort to finish over looking the files in front of him until his phone rang and he grumbled something to himself that only he could hear before he answered.

"Yeah?" He said.

"Mr. Angel, Buffy Summers is on the other line for you. Would you like me to put her call through?" Harmony asked.

"No, tell her I'm in a meeting and I can't get away." Angel lied, Buffy being the last person he wanted to talk to.

"Yes, sir." She said before hanging up.

It had been two months since Andrew had come to help them with the out of control Slayer with Buffy sending him to them and after all they did to stop the girl from hurting anyone else or herself, then turned the tables on them to take her away and that was the last time that they were going to be helping them now that they owned the law firm he'd been trying to bring down since he had first come to Los Angeles when he had to leave Sunnydale and his then love, the Slayer. Things were changed now and he couldn't even call her that anymore.  
Angel just hung up the phone and went back to what he was doing before so there wouldn't be any further distractions while trying not to worry about Willow's condition.

But during that, outside of Wolfram and Hart, the former Watcher was escorting Fred home after the long day had ended so that he could return home as well until someone was heading in their direction.

"Wesley, Fred. Got a second?" Spike asked.

"That depends. If you're looking for someone to help you steal one of Angel's cars, you've come to the wrong people." Fred stated.

"It's not about that, puppet. It's about Red." Spike replied.

"What is it?" Wesley asked.

"Is she okay?" Fred asked.

"Don't think so. She hasn't really been herself and I think she's hiding things, things she doesn't want us or Angel to know about. I can't believe I'm saying this, but…"

"You want us to help you." Wesley finished.

"That's better. I didn't have to say it." Spike mused.

Wesley and Fred looked from the bleach blonde vampire to each other and thought about what it was he was telling them. They didn't see any reason why he would lie and he had been very helpful with them even before he was no longer a ghost and looked back at him.

"Alright. We'll help you." Wesley said.

"Where do we start first?" Fred asked.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


End file.
